My Favourite Watercolour Supplies
Kickstart your creative endeavours.
In preparation for your artistic adventures at home, I've compiled a list of the essential materials you'll need, as well as a selection of my personal favourite art supplies, including both student and professional-grade options.
Please remember that all these materials are thoughtfully provided for you during the workshop, so this list is simply an added resource if you decide to continue your artistic pursuits in your own creative space.
Enjoy!
Watercolour Materials
Keep it simple and accessible! If you're painting at home, have a space set up that is always ready for you to easily sit and paint. The bare minimum of what you need to create is paint, paper, brushes, clear water, and a bit of light.
Brushes: Student-grade round brush sizes 1, 4 and 6. If I had to choose just one brush, it would be a round 4.
Paint: Student-grade tube paint set of 18. I’ll list specific brands below!
Paper: Medium surface cold-pressed 200gsm minimum. I will only use 300gsm + for my final pieces, and a lower weight for making marks and having fun. GSM stands for “grams per square metre” and refers to the weight of the paper.
Pain palette: Plastic / ceramic / or (my favourite) a large white dinner plate.
Water: Any clear jar that’s shorter than your paint brushes. I reuse old mason jam jars.
HB pencil, sharpener, eraser.
Paper towel for blotting.
Scrap paper for testing strokes and marks.
My Favourite Student & Professional Grade Watercolour Supplies
Paints: Reeves / Eraldo Di Paolo / Art Spectrum are great student grade brands for watercolour tube paints. For professional grade, I love Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolours (in tube form). The pans work beautifully too!
Paper: Eraldo Di Paolo / Reeves cold pressed 300gsm are both excellent options for student grade watercolour paper. For professional grade, 100% Cotton Arches Watercolour Paper is beautiful. I personally love the texture of cold pressed and the medium / rough paper textures with watercolours. You can experiment with a few options to see what you like best!
Brushes: Reeves / Eraldo Di Paolo / Artist First round watercolour brushes are a perfect student grade option. For professional grade, I love Winsor & Newton Cotman, and Princeton Round Brushes.
If you live in Australia, most of these brands can be found online at Riot Art, Officeworks, The Art Shed and Eckersley’s.
